After the finals, the other high school teams in the stands began to leave.
There was no extra time for the Xiangbei players to digest the defeat. After the final, the closing ceremony of the county basketball competition began immediately, and the closing ceremony was held on this court.
The organizers of the competition moved several small long tables to the center of the field, and then placed the trophies on the long tables. The award ceremony was hasty and simple. But as for the participating players, they didn't care whether the award ceremony was grand enough or the venue was luxurious.
All they care about is whether these awards are related to them.
For Shohoku, which lost in the final, the most sad part was the awarding of honors.
"Winner, Ryonan High School Basketball Team!"
Watching the people from Ryonan High School walk up to the podium and hold up the trophy of the county competition under the guidance of the concierge, the mood of the Xiangbei players has sunk to the bottom.
Amid the cheers of the audience, Ryonan's Jun Uozumi and Tano Shinomiya walked out of the line, received the trophy and certificate from an unknown leader, and then returned to their team with solemn faces.
"Runner-up, Shohoku Prefectural High School Basketball Team!" As the host's words rang out, Mitsui Hisashi walked out of the queue with an unhappy look on his face. Akagi Takenori stood there in a daze, with sweat still hanging on his face and body. He seemed not to have heard the host's words and did not follow Mitsui Hisashi out of the queue.
"Hey, Akagi, go get your award." Mugure Konobu was standing not far behind Akagi Takenori. Seeing that Mitsui Hisashi had already walked away but Akagi had not moved, he quickly poked Akagi's waist and reminded him in a low voice.
It was not until now that Akagi Takenori reacted. He rubbed his cheeks with both hands and walked towards the center of the field.
"Brother... congratulations!" Haruko Akagi watched Takenori Akagi walk out of the queue and go to the podium with Mitsui Hisashi, and she was happy for her brother from the bottom of her heart.
Takenori Akagi has been playing basketball since he was a child, and Haruko has watched him develop all the way. However, before today, Takenori Akagi had never appeared at a county-level award ceremony. It was not until today that Takenori Akagi truly took a step closer to his dream of "dominating the country."
Only Haruko knows how hard Akagi has worked these years. Akagi Takenori is different from Mitsui Shou. Although they are in the same grade, Mitsui Shou has carried honors. He has to work hard and has achieved results. But Akagi Takenori is different. He has to work hard and has never received any recognition.
At this point, the two teams representing Kanagawa Prefecture in the national competition have been determined: the champion Ryonan High School and the runner-up Shohoku High School. These two teams will be the two teams representing Kanagawa in the national competition.
After the championship and runner-up trophies are awarded, the players' individual honors will be presented.
"Most Outstanding Player Award", also known as the MVP trophy.
Without any surprise, the MVP went to the winner, Ryonan High School's Shinomiya Tano. Shinomiya Tano contributed 26 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists in the final. Although his individual scoring was far inferior to Jinguji Budo, his data was more comprehensive and he deserved the MVP trophy.
The next best 5 were awarded in a very artistic way. The winning team, Ryonan High School, occupied three seats. The center was Jun Uozumi, Shinomiya Tano was the power forward, and the point guard was given to Sendoh.
God knows how Ryonan High School reported the players' position attributes.
There are two players from Xiangbei who are selected as the best 5, namely Jinguji Budou and Mitsui Hisashi. Except for Xiangbei High School and Ryonan, no one from other teams entered the best 5 award.
This year's Rookie of the Year title was not awarded to Shimonoseki Tanaka, who won the MVP, but to Jinguji Takeshi. Without the bonus of being a champion, Shimonoseki's personal data was far inferior to Takeshi.
...
In the early morning of summer, the sky is as clear as a mirror.
Jinguji Budo got up early in the morning, left home early, and went to Fujima Shinichi's house for physical exercise.
After the finals, Wudao also learned from his mistakes and thought about doing special training for his weaknesses. In this era, gyms were not widely available, but Wudao's master, Fujima Shinichi, had a complete set of equipment, and even a lot of advanced equipment, which was not necessarily available even if you spent money in this era.
Jinguji Budou is a disciple of Fujima Shinichi who has completed the apprenticeship ceremony. In the Chinese cultural circle where inheritance is important, the master-apprentice relationship is second only to the father-son relationship. Therefore, Budou has had the key to Fujima Shinichi's house since the day he became his apprentice.
However, Wudao has been focusing on improving his basketball skills over the years, and his judo training is usually conducted at night. It is very rare for him to come to Fujima Shin's family so early in the morning like today.
In the equipment room, Takeshi Jinguji was doing squats with a 30kg barbell on his back. The weight was not heavy and the speed of each squat was very slow, but his face was already covered with sweat.
Squats are the best way to train waist, abdomen and leg strength. They are used in all sports. But Jinguji Budo did it for the first time since he came to this world.
He usually trains his waist and abdomen strength by doing crunches or goblet squats, which is the way to do squats with dumbbells in front of the chest. The barbell weighted squats are a training method that has never been used in martial arts.
In the past, it was because I was still in junior high school and was still young. The barbell weighted squats compressed my bones and affected my growth and development. People who practiced weightlifting since childhood did not grow tall. In fact, it was also closely related to their usual training. In addition, Wudao did not feel much resistance in the competitions of his peers before, so he did strength training, but it was not heavy.
However, the defeat in yesterday's final made Wudao realize his current shortcomings. The main reason why Shinomiya Tano was able to drive the entire team by breaking through and passing the ball was that Wudao could not withstand the opponent's advance when defending alone.
Why is it called a breakthrough pass? First of all, what you need to do is to break through.
The reason why Wu Dao was at a disadvantage against his opponent was also because of the power gap between the two.
Now, Wu Dao no longer worries about how high-intensity strength training such as barbell weighted squats will affect his growth and development. His height has reached 196cm. Even if he is not taller now, he is still a tall guard in the back line. If he grows taller in the future, that would be great too. If he can ensure speed and confrontation, it would also be good for him to play as a small forward.
If you don't have to worry about height, the restrictions on training will be much looser.
Just as Wudao was concentrating on training, the door of the equipment room was opened. Fujima Shinichi, wearing a loose home kimono, holding a newspaper in one hand and a teacup in the other, slowly walked into the equipment room.
Seeing Wu Dao sweating all over and doing squats with a barbell on his back, he couldn't help but smile.
"Hey, you're actually doing squats. What's going on? Are you excited about yesterday's competition? Did that young muscular guy from Ryonan High School cause you a lot of trouble?"
Shinichi Fujima walked to the rest area in the corner of the equipment room, placed the teacup on the small table, shook the newspaper in his hand, and asked Wu Dao with a smile.
"Master, did you go to watch yesterday's match?" Wu Dao stood up slowly, put the barbell on the rack, breathed a sigh of relief, grabbed the towel beside him and wiped the sweat off his face.
“I haven’t seen it, but I know.”
"Not only do I know this, I think many people know this too!"
Fujima Shinichi waved the newspaper in his hand towards Wudao, and said with a smile, it seems that his source of information is the newspaper in his hand. Wudao walked forward curiously, took the newspaper from Fujima Shinichi, and began to read it carefully.
This is the local sports daily, with one edition a day, but most of the time it reports on popular sports like judo and baseball. There really wasn't much coverage of basketball in the past.
But today's newspapers are different from usual ones. Basketball is not only reported on, but it even occupies the front page of the newspaper.
"The king's curtain is closed, the head of the stage is Kanagawa's ツインズ"
A big headline caught my eye, "The King's End, the Rising Kanagawa Twins", and right below the big headline was a photo of Jinguji Takeshi and Shinomiya Tano shaking hands. It was a close-up shot of the two men, with sweat clearly visible on their faces, and it should have been taken when they were shaking hands after the game.
Below the big photo were related reports, and there were also scattered photos of Budo and Shigong Tianye on the court. Shigong Tianye's photo was a frontal dunk, while Budo's photo was a backward jump shot.
The gist of the report is that Hainan, which had dominated the high school basketball world for more than a decade, was defeated and even lost the right to participate in the national competition. The rising Ryonan High School and Shohoku High School will be the new representative teams of Kanagawa Prefecture.
After that, the media hyped up the personal strengths of Jinguji Takeshi and Shinomiya Tano, saying that the two were the saviors of Japanese basketball, super geniuses who could be compared to Jordan, and had reached the level of national players in their first year of high school.
In short, the exaggeration was a bit harsh, and Wudao was embarrassed to see it.
However, Wu Dao did not pay much attention to the content of the report. His eyes fell on the photo of himself and Shigong Tianye shaking hands on the front page.
"It's so obvious... During the competition, I didn't even notice such a big gap between us."
"Master, did you see that from this photo?"
This photo in the newspaper captured the two demigods, Wudao and Shigong Tianye, very well. Shigong Tianye's arm circumference was a circle larger than Jinguji Wudao's. Wudao, who was still quite strong, looked a little thin standing in front of Shigong Tianye. This was something Wudao had not noticed before. He knew that there was a difference in strength between the two, but he didn't expect the difference to be so big that it could be seen with the naked eye.
"If the photo is correct, this kid's arm circumference is probably 40cm. If he is in the first year of high school like you, that's a bit scary."
"Your arm circumference seems to be only in the early 30s, right? For adults who exercise regularly, their arm circumference is generally around 35. For me, mine is 39, which is considered very strong. Most people can't have my strength."
"You are only in the first year of high school, and you have just started to grow. Having an arm circumference of over 30 is already very good. Your strength is definitely not small among your peers."
"But your opponent... ..ha!"
"Is that boy really the same age as you?"
It can be seen that Fujima Shinichi is very interested in Shinomiya Tano, and he does not hide the curiosity on his face at all.
"Yes, although he and I are both in the developmental stage, he should be developing earlier than me."
Wu Dao looked at Shinomiya Tano in the photo and answered casually.
"That's scary, too. I never thought there would be people like this in the sport of basketball."
"As for arm circumference, there are real differences between people. It's not something that can be increased just by exercising."
"If you want to maintain your speed and reaction time, there is a limit to how much you can increase your strength."
"Your opponent is a genius. At least, I have never seen a high school student like him before."
"You must have had a hard time in yesterday's game."
Shinichi Fujima said with a hint of emotion, although he had never played basketball as an athlete, he now had some understanding of basketball and he could personally feel the mood of martial arts.
"It's not easy. I have to be extremely alert in front of him, but I may not be able to defend against him."
“When attacking, I also felt restricted everywhere.”
“I feel like I haven’t used all of my abilities.”
Wu Dao murmured, his eyes never leaving the newspaper. His words seemed to be answering Fujima Shinichi's question, but it was more like he was talking to himself.
“Strength training is necessary, but you must never lose your own characteristics.”
"Although I don't understand basketball, I know that every athlete has his or her own unique characteristics, and you must never lose that."
Shinichi Fujima's words sounded like guidance and a reminder. He seemed to have noticed that Wu Dao was in a slightly gloomy state, so he gave him a reminder.
"... ..."
"I know. I won't be stupid enough to compete with the other party in strength. This is not my strong point. I won't throw away the weapon I am good at in pursuit of strength growth."
"However, if I want to become stronger at this stage, this training is absolutely necessary."
"Master, can you be my trainer? I want to increase the weight."
Wu Dao turned sideways, pointed at the barbell not far away, and asked.
"Thirty kilograms is indeed an average weight, but you should just take it step by step."
"I will make an exercise plan for you. With your current level of development, it shouldn't be a problem to spend half a year gaining 10 pounds."
"We'll see about the future plans later!"
Fujima Shinichi gathered the newspaper in his hand, smiled and drank a sip of water, and said to Wudao. Although Wudao was his judo disciple, Fujima Shinichi had no objection to Wudao playing basketball, not to mention that strengthening his physical fitness could also make Wudao make some progress in judo.
...
After the county competition, the Xiangbei High School basketball team had a short three-day vacation.
In three days, Xiangbei will resume training and prepare for the upcoming national competition.
The players were resting, but the coach, Mitsuyoshi Anzai, was not idle. Taking advantage of this free time, Coach Anzai began to use his previous connections and began to collect information on opponents in the national competition from all over the country.
Reels of videotapes and pieces of information began to gather in his hands. Except for some counties that had not yet decided on their representative teams, the information of nearly thirty teams fell into his hands. At the same time, Coach Anxi was also in seclusion at home, studying his opponents.
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .